''I don't think necessarily having newspaper headlines with the image of Madeleine being thrust on to people every single day helps. Clearly we have seen irresponsible reporting''

"Clearly they are fuelling each other," he told the Edinburgh International TelevisionFestival."Therewere commercial decisions being made for column inches and time on television."

Echoing comments made by Newsnight anchor Jeremy Paxman about TV news' tendency to sensationalise stories to be heard amongst so many channels, he said that there had been a failure to separate speculation and fact.

McCann said: "Before Madeleine's disappearanceIprobablybelievedmost of the things you read in the newspapers were true and that almost everything in television had a factual basis.

"There is a responsibility on journalists and producers to present facts or to make it very clear when they are talking about speculation."

Despiteaperceptionthatthe McCanns and their publicists have run a skilful media campaign to maximise coverage over the inquiry, he insisted he had never wanted or expected as much space to be devoted to it.

He and his wife had only co-operated with the media in the belief that it maximisedthechancesofgettingtheir daughter back. But he said: "I don't thinknecessarilyhavingnewspaper headlines with the image of Madeleine being thrust on to people every single day actually helps Clearly we have seen irresponsible reporting."

HesaidheandhiswifeKatehad decided early on to stop watching the coverage. "We only had Sky News at first. There was just a huge amount of speculation and it usually ended up in a very negative way that Madeleine is dead.

"The psychologist was saying, You don't know that that has happened' so very quickly we turned the TV off and stopped reading the newspapers," he said. He added that he and Kate had moved quickly to reassure Portuguese police that they were not the sources of criticismoftheinquirythathad appeared in the British press. The policeassuredthemthattheywoulddotheirutmosttofindMadeleine,who has now been missing for 115 days.

The speculation in the Portuguese press, which has reported contradictions in the McCanns' statements and even linked them to their daughter's disappearance, was in his view made possible by a fierce belief in freedom of speech that followed years of military dictatorship. He said that this allows stories attributed to unnamed sources to be printable with no legal comeback.

Hepointedtothefrontpageof yesterday's Express, which claimed the McCanns had killed their daughter with a drug overdose, as a "classic example" of a string of British stories that prominently reported anti-McCann speculation from Portugal.

"The majority of it is absolutely wild speculation with no foundation," he said, pointing to a recent statement by the chief inspector of the inquiry (which was carried in the Express) that said the McCannswerenotsuspects."The stories are just completely at odds with the facts. It's unbelievable," he said. Nobody at the Express was available for comment, but a spokesman for Sky News said: "Sky News quickly identified the story as one of significant interest and treated it responsibly throughout. The appeal posters on our website have been downloaded in their thousands."

GIVENthatMcCann had been expected to praisethepressand TV news for their role in the hunt for his daughter, he instead endedupagreeing with much of what author Lionel Shriver is expected to say in a speech to the festival this morning.

As reported in the Sunday Herald last week, the award-winning writer of We Need To Talk About Kevin is to tell the TV news industry that it is hooked on hyping up stories like that of Madeleine's disappearance because they share the characteristics of a blockbuster novel.

In an interview she said: "For that one kid to have got that much attention just because she's really cute and white and blonde was disproportionate.

"I would not mean my criticism of the coverage to be unsympathetic, but my sympathy extends to any parent who's been in that situation. Gerry McCann's heart should go out to them too."

Not all of the audience were convinced by McCann's arguments, however,withonenewseditorsaying afterwards that it was strange for him to have been so critical when he and his wife had done so much to encourage the volume of coverage.

In a question-and-answer session afterwards, when BBC head of news Peter Horrocks pointed out that the McCanns had chosen to give interviews after their daughter had been missing for 100 days, McCann said they had co-operated because they had known that coverage would build at that point.

He said: "If we had said please go home, would they have done that?" Horrocks replied: "If you had said please go home, surely that would have made a difference."

Asked by Jim Gray, Channel 4 News editor, whether he thought the British press had used the speculative reports todeliberatelyattackthefamily, McCann replied that he did not think so. He also rejected suggestions by interviewer Kirsty Wark that the coverage might have made the perpetrator panic and jeopardised the inquiry. He said they were following an American approach that said that aggressive and wide coverage was the best strategy.

He explained how the media campaign to find Madeleine had come about after discussions with family and friends. As well as high-profile moves involving footballers David Beckham and Ronaldo andvisitingthePope,thisincluded quickly making Madeleine's picture digitally available, reserving web domain names and tipping off photographers when the family were going to church.

He said that he and his wife had been privately"devastated"bywhathad happened, despite looking composed during interviews.

This had been possible because they had always had the chance to "build up" to the meetings and because the police had advised them to show no emotion in public. The family were now thinking about coming home, believing their continued presence might be detrimental to the inquiry.

"The emotional thing for us is leaving Portugal as a family of four when we cameasafamilyoffive.That'sthe sticking point," he said, although he stressedthattheystillbelieved Madeleine was alive.